Vanilla flavoring used to be made from castoreum, which is harvested from beaver anal glands

As I understand it, publishing lets others validate the science. You’re not just declaring what you’ve discovered, you’re showing your work - your sources, your data, your references, your processes.

After you’ve done all that, even if it’s crap, someone else expressing an interest in going through all that can be quite a compliment. Or, if you didn’t bother dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s, it can make you a mite defensive…

But yes, a lot of trash can be published. And since it is published, it can be shown to be trash, if someone goes to the trouble.

If Tylenol caused autism, there would be a lot more support for trains in the U.S.

I believe they specifically asked about anarchy? If they know little about it, what could they have posted that would have been better than what they did post?

They’re open to a lucky 10,000 moment; don’t drop the ball!

Wow - I didn’t realize that until I read your post.

Thought they were going for a “lobsters eating your face!” vibe.

Go dunk your head! Seriously, you can see the effect in a pool - look at how well you can see things above and below the surface, go underwater, and open your eyes. Things will be fuzzier.

You’re trying to reason away an effect that people actually see, and that you can verify independently. That’s the opposite of how science works.

For a scientific explanation, my first Google got came up with this - an article about some kids who do seem to see normally underwater. It also includes this explanation for our blurrier experience:

When the eye is immersed in water, which has about the same density as the cornea, we lose the refractive power of the cornea, which is why the image becomes severely blurred

…so what happens when you use goggles? Or a camera?

Lakes can be dirty, but you can see the same effect in a pool. Or your bathtub.

I thought it was adorable! I’m hearing Portal’s turret dialogue with these.

“Hello? …are you still there?”

The canal’s above sea level, isn’t it? Wouldn’t that just make it a river that goes over the continental divide?